Eriko E. Gale

October 2007

If you have a close connection to some of the people, places or things you have written about in the article Eric Gale, you may have a conflict of interest. In keeping with Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy, edits where there is a conflict of interest, or where such a conflict might reasonably be inferred from the tone of the edit and the proximity of the editor to the subject, are strongly discouraged. If you have a conflict of interest, you should avoid or exercise great caution when:

1. editing articles related to you, your organization, or its competitors, as well as projects and products they are involved with,
2. participating in deletion discussions about articles related to your organization or its competitors,
3. linking to the Wikipedia article or website of your organization in other articles (see Wikipedia:Spam);

   and you must always:

4. avoid breaching relevant policies and guidelines, especially neutral point of view, verifiability, and autobiography.

For information on how to contribute to Wikipedia when you have conflict of interest, please see Wikipedia:Business' FAQ. For more details about what constitutes a conflict of interest, please see Wikipedia:Conflict of Interest. Thank you.  — Timotab ^{Timothy (not Tim dagnabbit!)} 15:02, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Welcome!

Hello, Eriko E. Gale, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

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I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome!  — Timotab ^{Timothy (not Tim dagnabbit!)} 00:11, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Eric Gale

Hi there. Thank you for the note. I will address your concerns one by one:

I am the daughter of the late Eric Gale

As I wrote above, when you are closely connected with the subject of an article on wikipedia, that means you could have a conflict of interest, which makes it hard to write an article with a neutral point of view. The usual way to resolve COI issues is for the person with the conflict of interest to discuss the changes they would like to make on the articles talk page, where other editors can review the information, see if it is suitable for inclusion, and then make the changes.

The information I have added onto Eric Gale's page came from the (c.d. liner that we have all rights to)Columbia house release of the two albums Ginseng Woman & Multiplication which is of course permitted.

You may well own the rights to these words. However, for something to appear on Wikipedia verbatim, it must either be public domain, or have an appropriate free license attached to it. It doesn't, it is still under copyright, and to just copy that text word for word is a copyright violation. One could then argue that you could take that information and rewrite it in your own words, as that would then not be a copyright violation. While that is true, all of the information on Wikipedia has to be backed up by a reliable, third party, source. CD liner notes are not third party sources, as they would largely have been written by the artist themselves. Third party sources would include newspaper articles, or books where the subject is mentioned and discussed.

Ghmyrtle feels the need to control the information solely in his best interest as I have no idea who this person is which I find unnecessary.

No, Ghmyrtle wishes to uphold Wikipedia's policies, and has been trying to ensure that others do the same.

can I, his daughter, write about him in my own words?

I'm afraid not, at least, not on Wikipedia. All information on Wikipedia has to be verifiable, and while I'm sure you treasure your personal memories with your father, they constitute original research, which is expressly forbidden by Wikipedia's policies. If you wish to have full editorial control over what is written about your father, then you are welcome to set up your own website or blog, but Wikipedia is not the appropriate venue for that.

I do think I have a right to this just as much as some random man from some where in the U.K. that wished he knew my dad.

You have just as much right as any editor on Wikipedia to add information in a neutral point of view, as long as it is verifiable and has reliable sources.

What right does he have to lock down Eric Gale's page?

He's not locking it down, he's removing items and issues that violate Wikipedia's policies.

On Eric Gale's page I noticed today that this Ghmyrtle added a reference (which was not there yesterday) that I had put there earlier, but "failed" to add on correctly when I revised the page. If you need "verifiable" proof, the last time he logged on was today to add that specific reference in

Yes, he did add that reference, and put it in in accordance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. By the way, verifiable has a very specific meaning when used in reference to Wikipedia and its policies.

Tomorrow I will scan and post the album cover I am referring to

Please don't. It will be removed as a copyright violation.

I urge you to visit all the links that I've put in my reply here, so that you can understand how Wikipedia works, so that you can be a valuable contributor to this project. I've also included a welcome message above my reply here, which has other useful reading. If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask them on my talk page. Thank you. — Timotab ^{Timothy (not Tim dagnabbit!)} 00:11, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Timotab is right, and he has already mentioned all the suitable policies. I can only suggest you to take this seriously, read them and learn more about how Wikipedia works. Regarding the comment on your userpage please also note that Wikipedia is not a webspace provider. You can find numerous ones that offer web space available for free. I've also removed the copyrighted material from your userpage for the same reasons. --Oxymoron⁸³ 01:49, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Copyright policy

Dear Ms. Gale, Wikipedia's copyright policies have been devised to ensure that Wikipedia's content remains within the laws of the United States and the state of Florida, in which Wikipedia exists as a legal entity. Copyrighted material cannot be placed in any article or any user space. If you feel that your use of the material that has been removed (the liner notes from the CD of Eric Gale) is not a copyright violation, or if you have permission from the copyright holder to release the content freely under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL), you have the following options:

• If you have permission from the author, leave a message explaining the details at the talk page of the article where such material is used and send an email with the message to "permissions-en (at) wikimedia (dot) org". See Wikipedia:Requesting copyright permission for instructions.
• If you own the copyright to the material: send an e-mail from an address associated with the original publication to permissions-en(at)wikimedia(dot)org or a postal message to the Wikimedia Foundation permitting re-use under the GFDL, and note that you have done so on the talk page of the article.

It is not sufficient to assert in the article on your userpage that the use is permissible, because Wikipedia does not require proof of identity on the establishment of a user account. The extra steps increase the difficulty of using the material, but they protect Wikipedia and the owners of copyrighted material, who could otherwise be substantially damaged by the illegal distribution of protected works.

Do note that if you choose to place this material on Wikipedia and satisfy Wikipedia's legal requirements allowing you to do so, you will be agreeing by your submission to release the text under the GNU Free Documentation License. This gives "everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially". I'm unsure if this release of rights is what you intend. Once placed on Wikipedia, with proper permissions, you will not be able to stop the material from being redistributed and altered in any way. Sincerely, Moonriddengirl 02:05, 2 October 2007 (UTC)